Kentucky

A horse suffered a nearly shattered jaw bone when it was struck by a bullet near the Jessamine-Fayette County border off Tates Creek Road in Lexington, WKYT, the CBS television affiliate in the city reported. A surgeon caring for the horse told the station that the shooting happened in the early morning hours of Feb. 3 when she was informed there was a horse with blood around its face. "If the bullet had been, say, four inches higher she would not be alive at this time," Dr. Liz Barrett told...

Officials at Fasig-Tipton have announced the addition of five entries to the supplemental catalogue for it's upcoming Winter Mixed Sale Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 10 and 11 at the company's Newtown Paddocks. The new entries are catalogued as hips 646-650. Hip 646, Sentimental (f, 3, Honor Code); placed at two, the dark bay is out of SW & GSP Smooth Performer (Benchmark), making her a half-sister to SW Into Trouble (Into Mischief). Her MGSW second dam Smooth Player (Bertrando) produced Singapore champion Maximus (Lemon Drop Kid) Hip 647, Nanuet (f,...

A spike in foal deaths caused by nocardioform placentitis has been reported in Kentucky as the first month of the 2020 Thoroughbred foaling season comes to a close. As of late Thursday afternoon, the number of equine abortions reported by the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (UKVDL) stood at 44. The UKVDL's statewide map of the foal deaths listed 29 in Fayette County alone. Other abortions listed by county include six each in Woodford and Bourbon, and one each in Shelby, Scott, and Harrison. You can view the interactive...

We've all got a shot. But only Bill Nicholls has a Shotski (Blame). Not strictly true, of course. The son of Blame, who makes his sophomore bow in the GIII Withers S. Saturday, is banking his racetrack purses for a partnership comprised of Adam Wachtel, Gary Barber, Pantofel Stable and Mike Karty; and raised no more than $25,000 when sold as a yearling by Springland Farm and Prime Bloodstock LLC. But if that's a fairly minimal reward, for breeding a GII Remsen S. winner, then Nicholls can comfort himself that...

Tired of all the bad news? So were we. So, in our new series, we focus on the positive, asking people from non-horse racing families two questions: how they get hooked, and how they'll hook someone else on horse racing this year. KIARAN MCLAUGHLIN, TRAINER What was the experience that made you fall in love with horse racing? I was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, in the horse capital of the world. At that time, everyone knew someone who had something to do with the Thoroughbred industry. For me,...

Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro--Globe Trot, by A.P. Indy) was represented by his first reported foal Friday, Jan. 10, when a filly from Moment of Speight (Ire) (Speightstown) was born at Forever Spring Farm in Kentucky. Bred in partnership by Forever Spring and River Oaks Farm, the bay is the first produce from her 5-year-old dam, a daughter of Irish SW and U.S. dual graded-stakes placed Shimmering Moment (Afleet Alex). The filly's third dam Vassar (Royal Academy) is responsible for champion and two-time GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint hero Stormy Liberal...

The annual Stallion Open House at Crestwood Farm in Lexington is scheduled for this coming Sunday, Jan. 12, from 1-4 p.m. at the nursery's stallion barn located at 3758 Spurr Road. Breeders are invited to register in person for the 2020 free season raffle for each of the farm's six stallions. Food and drinks will be served in a heated tent. The newest addition to the Crestwood line-up is Heart to Heart (English Channel--Ask the Question, by Silver Deputy), champion 3-year-old in Canada in 2014 and a Grade I winner...

Alex Solis II has been named the Director of Bloodstock at Gainesway Farm, the farm announced this morning via press release. According to the press release, over the past 10 years, his partnership with Jason Litt at Solis/Litt Bloodstock has advised the purchase of 11 Grade I winners, and 46 Graded stakes horses. In 2019, Solis/Litt's success included the 2019 Kentucky Derby winner Country House and Breeders' Cup-winning sprinter Covfefe. Past selections include champion Shared Belief and dual Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Mizdirection. "It is an honor to be offered...

Over the coming days and weeks, we will be touched by the customary pictures of first foals tottering onto the gawky limbs that must someday propel them around the racetrack, and so determine the viability of their sires' new careers. That's the idea, at any rate. Sadly, we know that the auctioneer's gavel will expel some of these stallions from Kentucky--and just to reiterate, we will be surveying regional sires at the end of this series--before their stock gets any meaningful opportunity to test the heritability of the talent that...

Before new student athletes at the University of Kentucky (UK) embark upon their collegiate sporting careers, they undergo a 2 1/2-hour battery of physical tests to determine a variety of factors, like the alacrity of their neuromotor and neurocognitive functions, their aerobic efficiency and their musculoskeletal health. The data generated from these tests can be used as a reference should one of these athletes get injured, as well as to help design protocols to reduce the likelihood of injury in the first place, said Scott Lephart, dean of UK's College...